Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. His name was Pedro Gonzalez,
Speaker 1: and to some he was known as the Man of
Speaker 1: the woods. No, he didn't live among the trees or
Speaker 1: off the grid. It was the mid fifteen hundreds, there
Speaker 1: was no grid yet. He was born in Tenerife, one
Speaker 1: of the Spanish Canary islands off the coast of Africa,
Speaker 1: and he was well. He was a little strange to
Speaker 1: those who knew him. He was a curiosity, unlike anyone
Speaker 1: they'd ever seen before. Pedro had a condition now known
Speaker 1: as hypertrichosis, although at the time those who suffered from
Speaker 1: the condition were simply called wild men or animals. See
Speaker 1: Pedro had hair, a lot of hair. I don't mean
Speaker 1: long locks like Rapunzel. Rather, his entire face and body,
Speaker 1: from his forehead to his toes were covered with thick,
Speaker 1: dark hairs. Given the lack of human rights laws at
Speaker 1: the time, it wasn't long before young Pedro's condition made
Speaker 1: him a target for opportunistic kidnappers. He was taken from
Speaker 1: his home and thrown in a metal cage, where he
Speaker 1: was fed raw meats and kept like property a pet.
Speaker 1: In fact, he was eventually sent to France as a
Speaker 1: gift for King Henry the Second's coronation in Once in France,
Speaker 1: things didn't go as expected. I mean, they couldn't have
Speaker 1: got much worse. But King Henry didn't react the way
Speaker 1: any other king might have. Rather than except the gift
Speaker 1: and throw Pedro in a dungeon or parade him around
Speaker 1: the kingdom on a leash, he took mercy on the boy.
Speaker 1: He saw his human entity where others saw only an animal,
Speaker 1: and so the king decided to try something. He plucked
Speaker 1: the young man from his cage and had him educated
Speaker 1: by the best teachers in the land. In a not
Speaker 1: so benevolent gesture, he forced Pedro to use the Latin
Speaker 1: form of his name, Petrus Gonsalvus. He wore clothes of
Speaker 1: fine silk, a delicious warm meals, and learned to speak, read,
Speaker 1: and write in three different languages. He had reached noble
Speaker 1: status without having been born or marry into it, quite
Speaker 1: a feat for someone who only years earlier had been
Speaker 1: forced to eat raw meat in a cage where he slept. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: no one else saw him as a nobleman. He still
Speaker 1: bore the symptoms of a man with hypertrichosis. Shaving didn't work,
Speaker 1: the hair just grew back. What's worse, Gonsalvas's adoptive father,
Speaker 1: King Henry, was killed in a jousting match twelve years
Speaker 1: after he'd taken the boy under his wing. Since he
Speaker 1: was still technically a gift for the king, he now
Speaker 1: became the property of the king's widow, Katherine de Medici.
Speaker 1: Catherine didn't prove as generous as her late husband. She
Speaker 1: too had an experiment plan for Petrus, one that changed
Speaker 1: the lives of two innocent people. In the name of
Speaker 1: morbid curiosity. Catherine wanted to know of Petrus and his
Speaker 1: wife could conceive children and pass on his condition. There
Speaker 1: was only one problem. Petrus didn't have a wife. Not
Speaker 1: to worry, though, Katherine was resourceful. She ordered the young
Speaker 1: daughter of one of her servants to marry him, and
Speaker 1: it didn't take long for the newlyweds to start a family.
Speaker 1: All in all, they had seven children, four of whom
Speaker 1: were also born with hypertrichosis. The Queen needless to say,
Speaker 1: was thrilled her experiment had paid off. And yeah, the
Speaker 1: whole story sounds awful and cringe worthy. These were not
Speaker 1: civilized times, but in a way, some good did come
Speaker 1: of Petrus's change in status. His story was told for generations,
Speaker 1: and like with any story, it took on a life
Speaker 1: of its own. Soon Petrus wasn't a medical anomaly, but
Speaker 1: accursed prince and his wife had turned into a villager,
Speaker 1: held captive in a hidden castle. Eventually, someone wrote it
Speaker 1: all down, someone named Gabriello Suzanne Barbo the Villa Nueva,
Speaker 1: and that story she wrote became the origin for a
Speaker 1: tale we all know and love today, a tale as
Speaker 1: old as time, you might say. And that's right. Before
Speaker 1: talking teapots and dancing candelabras, there was Petrus Gonsalvos and
Speaker 1: his wife Catherine, the real life inspirations for Beauty and
Speaker 1: the Beast. It's hard to accept when a loved one
Speaker 1: passes away. It can seem like they're not really gone,
Speaker 1: like they're still there with us as we process our grief.
Speaker 1: Ever since ancient Egypt, death has been treated as a
Speaker 1: kind of temporary status, as though the body had merely
Speaker 1: been a vessel for an immortal spirit to move on
Speaker 1: to the afterlife. One way in which spirits were sated
Speaker 1: was with an offering, not gold or jewels, but food
Speaker 1: and drink, usually alcoholic. Perhaps you've heard the phrase pour
Speaker 1: one out, where someone will tip their can or bottle
Speaker 1: and watch as a splash of beer is absorbed into
Speaker 1: the ground for a fallen friend or family member. That
Speaker 1: practice is nothing new, and its origins can be traced
Speaker 1: all the way back to the days of the Pharaohs.
Speaker 1: As time progressed, other cultures adopted it and even expanded
Speaker 1: upon it. Enter the Romans. They didn't just celebrate life
Speaker 1: with drunken parties. They paid sincere respect for the deceased
Speaker 1: loved ones of their life was by way of pouring
Speaker 1: a small amount of wine onto the ground so it
Speaker 1: could be absorbed and passed onto the bodies residing beneath them.
Speaker 1: The idea was simple, keep the dead happy and satisfied
Speaker 1: and their spirits wouldn't haunt the living. But how did
Speaker 1: they know their wine was making it through all those
Speaker 1: layers of dirt and stone to the graves below. Well,
Speaker 1: they didn't, and leaving it up the chance meant tempting fate,
Speaker 1: and let's be honest, no one wanted to be haunted
Speaker 1: by their beloved aunt because she hadn't gotten enough to
Speaker 1: drink in the afterlife. The Romans needed a sure fire
Speaker 1: away to verify their libations made it to their final destination,
Speaker 1: so they came up with a solution a tube. It
Speaker 1: began at the surface level and traveled all the way
Speaker 1: down to the grave, providing a way to transport food
Speaker 1: and drink to the dead, hence their name libation tubes.
Speaker 1: No one knows exactly what was poured down these tubes,
Speaker 1: scientists have deduced anything from wine to oil too. Flowers
Speaker 1: were sent down to a company the deceased. The tubes
Speaker 1: grew so popular they were incorporated into funerary rituals and
Speaker 1: ceremonies from the time of death and throughout the year.
Speaker 1: In mid February, families visited cemeteries for Parentalia, where people
Speaker 1: paid respect to their ancestors for a period of nine days,
Speaker 1: living eight meals together near the graves, and passed portions
Speaker 1: of their feasts down the libation tubes so that the
Speaker 1: dead could be part of the celebrations. Lamoralia was another festival,
Speaker 1: albeit a less celebratory one where Romans would provide beans
Speaker 1: to calm evil spirits to avoid the ghosts of their
Speaker 1: beloved ones coming back hungry and angry. Beans and other
Speaker 1: items were sent down the tubes to their resting places below. Eventually,
Speaker 1: as Christianity spread throughout Europe, the practice of building libation
Speaker 1: tubes died out. However, that didn't stop mourners from offering
Speaker 1: a swig of their wine or beer to the dead.
Speaker 1: They just did it in a less direct way. In Mexico,
Speaker 1: tequila and mescal are offered at altars on the day
Speaker 1: of the dead. In Russia, vodka isn't only poured over
Speaker 1: the grave, but a glass is covered with black bread
Speaker 1: while mourners celebrate the life of the deceased. Taoist believe
Speaker 1: that when a person dies of violent death, their spirit
Speaker 1: roams around in something called the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts.
Speaker 1: During the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, the realm
Speaker 1: opens and the ghosts within find their way to Earth
Speaker 1: in search of revenge. Thouist then offered gifts and food
Speaker 1: to these ghosts as part of a large feast meant
Speaker 1: to coax them back to where they came from. But
Speaker 1: Tibetan Buddhists might have the most extreme practice of all,
Speaker 1: one steeped in a deep reverence for the dead then
Speaker 1: all they accomplished during their life. A cup called akappala
Speaker 1: is crafted from a human skull and decorated with precious jewels.
Speaker 1: The cup is then filled with dough cakes shaped like
Speaker 1: human eyes, ears, and tongues, as well as a liquid
Speaker 1: of some kind, sometimes alcohol but oftentimes blood, and then
Speaker 1: offered to malevolent deities. Only the spiritual leaders who have
Speaker 1: achieved a level of expertise above all others may drink
Speaker 1: from the cappala, as it's believed that, along with the
Speaker 1: liquid inside, the knowledge of the skulls former owner is
Speaker 1: passed along to the drinker. So the next time you
Speaker 1: have a drink or celebrate something with a big meal,
Speaker 1: pause for a moment and reflect on the past. Some people,
Speaker 1: it seems, don't drink to forget, They drink to remember.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works, I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a pie cast book series and
Speaker 1: television show and you can learn all about it over
Speaker 1: at the world of Lore dot com. And until next time,
Speaker 1: stay curious. H